The old skin has to be shed before the new one com
by Syd15
Summary: Sometimes you grow up to be something you did not see coming.


**Author's note:** This has been sitting in my hard drive for eons. I was so unsure of it that I didn't really wanted to use it but I need to complete my Fringeverse Pattern Event and I have to use every little thing I have. Sorry. Thanks to **Alex Kade** for betaing this, any errors remaining are mine and only mine because I'm _that_ stubborn.

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><p><em>The old skin has to be shed (before the new one can come)<em>

- Joseph Campbell

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><p>She remembers when she was a kid, dad had all these comics she couldn't read but loved looking at. At night, she would pick one, hand it to dad, and ask him to read it.<p>

He was a great storyteller, making all kind of voices for her, not exactly what you'd expect from a military man; but then again, you wouldn't expect them to like comic books either.

She loved that good always won over evil, that all these cartoon characters used their abilities to protect those who were in danger.

.

.

.

One night, it hit her, "You're one of them daddy." He just laughed at her childlike innocence and told her that he is no hero, but her three-year-old self wouldn't back down. "You go to war, you save people, you are."

He gave her a weak smile and whispered something like, "I'm not so sure anymore."

She was so thrilled, thinking daddy lived his own comic story.

.

.

.

At dad's funeral, she remembers a man handing mom a folded flag and then kneeling on the green grass in front of her, his big hands covering her smaller ones as he tells her, "Your dad was a hero."

Olivia can't stop the tears running down her checks but a smile cracks on her face.

She knows exactly what her father was.

.

.

.

When mom asks her if she wants to go say goodbye, she stands up, goes to him and puts her white rose on top of the wood casket where her father rests.

"I'm gonna be just like you," she whispers.

A heroine.

.

.

.

A few years later, when she hears her stepfather's car turning, coming back, there's no thinking about it; she goes straight for the handgun her stepfather keeps hidden under the liquor cabinet. It only takes one bullet, she knows exactly where to shoot.

Her mom and Rachel are the first people she ever protected.

Her stepfather, her first villain defeated.

.

.

.

She keeps her promise and tries to become the best heroine she can.

So she runs, keeps fit, exceeds in every single sport she plays at school. She climbs rope, and gets into the girls scout, any little thing that will help her achieve her goal.

And every weekend after dad dies, she goes hunting with Uncle Joe. Then weekends with Joe turn into five days a week in a shooting range and she becomes a far better shooter than her dad or Joe ever was.

Rachel finds it creepy, shooting at a human silhouette.

She's sure it would make dad so proud.

Mom asks why. Just once.

"Because I'm no superwoman with abilities," she answers.

Because it kills monsters.

(Mom shouldn't need to ask)

.

.

.

She gets into the army and enjoys every single minute of it.

Then, she finally gets the call.

There's an open spot waiting for her at the Fringe Division if she wants it. She accepts and a month into the job she thinks that's the closest she'll ever get to being a heroine.

Only a few years later the Secretary of Defense calls her to his office with a new assignment. "It's the most important thing you'll ever do, it will save billions of lives, you'll save our world," he says.

She's so sure that's as close to being a heroine as it comes, she never stops to think about the other billion lives that will get lost.

Until she goes there and meets them, these people with dreams and hopes. Another universe with its own set of heroes and villains.

She meets Peter and wonders. Starts doubting the mission, tries to convince herself she's doing the right thing.

_I'm being a heroine, I'm saving the world._

It's like a mantra she repeats herself to sleep.

But she's not above guilt, so she tries to get Peter to say that he understands, that he would do the same, that what she is doing is the right thing to do. Not that she needs his approval or whatever; it's just… billions of people.

His answer freezes her.

_There are billions of innocent people over there... just like here... people with jobs, families, lives. I got to believe there's another way. And whatever my part in all of this is... I got to believe there's another way. There's always hope, right?_

Billions of people.

But she has to complete the mission, she has to save her world.

.

.

.

Now, as she sits in bed holding her baby boy, considering the option of letting Mr. Bishop kill his own son, her kid's fathers, along with a whole other universe, she wonders if maybe she didn't became the villain instead.

She's not so sure if dad would be proud of her anymore.

.

- Fin


End file.
